We will take the evergreen iPhone 3GS which runs the Apple OS and put it up against Samsung’s new Wave phone. The Samsung Wave is the first of its kind to use Samsung’s new Bada OS. ‘Bada’ means wave in Korean.
The camera on the Samsung Wave is a 5-megapixel one whereas the camera on the iPhone 3GS is a 3-megapixel one. The Super AMOLED screen of the Samsung Wave should outdo the iPhone, since it uses Samsung’s digital TV technology of a couple of years ago. We do know that the resolution of the Wave is higher at 800 x 480 pixels vs the 320 x 480 pixels of the iPhone.

The iPhone has more memory at 16 or 32GB versions while the Bada is sold in the 2 or 8GB variations.

The difference in service is that the iPhone offers more than 100,000 apps in the Apple AppStore, most of which will cost money to download, whereas the Bada Store is relatively newer. It will take a bit of time before Samsung applications catch up with what Apple’s AppStore has to offer.

We would guess that the Samsung Wave will retail at around two-thirds the price of the iPhone 3GS. The branding of the iPhone has really put a crimp in the style of the other manufacturers. Gone are the days when flagship devices such as the Samsung Wave would enter the market for nothing less than RM 2,500.

Apple iPhone 3G S (RM 2370 - 2450 AP)

3.5G HSDPA + WiFi 802.11 b/g, Touchscreen Candybar, 3.0 MP Camera, 16 or 32GB Memory

The Apple iPhone 3G S, features improved speed and performance - up to twice as fast as the iPhone 3G. It has longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control. iPhone 3G S includes the new iPhone OS 3.0, with over 100 new features such as Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS, Spotlight Search, landscape keyboard and a new Find My iPhone feature that works together with MobileMe to help you locate a lost iPhone.

Data speeds are upped to 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, and storage capacity will extended to 32GB as well. Users' can expect a built-in compass, Nike+ support, and a more powerful battery that offers 5 hours of 3G talk time and 9 hours of WiFi internet use. There is a voice control interface that allows voice commands to be understood by the iPhone 3G S. Apple is also touting an oleophobic (fingerprint resistant) coating

Samsung Wave (RM 1,699)
3.5G HSDPA + WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Touchscreen Candybar, 5.0 MP Camera, 2/8 GB RAM + microSD (32GB max)

Samsung Wave S8500 is the first mobile handset to be released on Samsung's new, open mobile platform, Samsung bada.

The Samsung Wave S8500 offers a Super AMOLED 3.3" display that makes the screen truly come alive, a Social Hub to bring you closer to your contacts and connections, and TouchWiz 3.0 for an intuitive and hugely customizable user interface. The Wave's high-speed CPU ensures swift, smooth application experiences and multi-tasking, making the device an always-on mobile multimedia companion.

The Super AMOLED offers much brighter, clearer, and less reflective AMOLED OnCell display, featuring a high resolution WVGA (800x480 pixels) screen with mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) technology.

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The iPad so far has split opinions right down the middle. – Is it closer to a netbook or an e-reader? Does it have word processing capability? If so, how would I type? What about entertainment? It’s a medley of questions for one of Apple’s great leap forward. And its purchase will warrant some serious thinking, when it does drop into Malaysian market.

Design

The iPad is a touchscreen tablet, with three models that connect to the Internet over Wi-Fi (16GB for USD $499 USD, 32GB for $599 USD and 64GB for $699 USD). And three that use a combination of Wi-Fi and AT&T's 3G wireless (16GB for $629 USD, 32GB for $729 USD, and 64GB for $829 USD, and a data subscription).

The device has a 9.7 inch diagonal screen, with a 1024x768-pixel resolution backlit by LEDs. Screen angles are very good, standing or sitting won’t affect the display of the iPad. The device’s dimensions are 242.8mm x 189.7mm x 13.4mm, about the size of a magazine.

The one we have on-hand is the 16GB running on Wi-Fi, the device is entirely touch based, and Apple has retained their button format for their mobile devices – a home screen button, a volume rocker and a unlock button.

The iPad has one additional button, the screen rotation lock, trigger it and the page you are looking at will lock to either horizontal or vertical orientation. It is a welcomed addition, especially if you use the iPad lying down, the onboard accelerometer has trouble reading the orientation.

The iPad runs on the same OS on iPhone and iPod Touch, and the iPad will be hands-on if you’ve used any of those devices. In a nutshell, the iPad runs apps, web browsing, email, maps, photos, music, video, YouTube, and the list goes on. The App Store built in the OS will act as the portal to buy and install apps.

The iPad on its own doesn’t make calls, but with apps like Skype and with native Bluetooth support, VoIP calls are supported.

The custom Apple 1GHz A4 processor has some power, but isn’t adequate when running apps – especially games. Battery life is impressive, perhaps owing to its larger size, but the standby time and use time is every bit as Apple claimed and more.

E-reader

The iPad marks Apple's first step into the world of e-book readers. The iBooks app (a free app), is an e-bookstore with bestsellers and textbooks. Just like iTunes, titles in the store are organised by popularity and by genre.

Preview a few pages before deciding on a purchase, and downloaded books will be arranged into a bookshelf. Reading in portrait will display one page, meanwhile landscape mode will show both pages. The text size and font style can be tweaked to your heart’s delight.

Comic book fans should rejoice at the Marvel app, the comic browser is a store and reader meshed into one. And much like iBooks, the titles are organised by genre, and writers. You can also preview before buying, and Marvel threw in a few choice titles for free as well.

It works similar to iBooks, flick a finger to the edge of the ‘page’ will turn your comic pages either forward of backwards. Double tap on each individual comic panel to zoom in, double tap to zoom out. Reading and browsing comics (free or otherwise) will require an account.

At 680 grams, the iPad is hefty, requiring a surface, something to prop up the tablet or a two-hand grasp for extended reading.

iWork

Remember when we asked whether this device bridged the gap between e-readers and netbooks, well Apple threw in iWork apps like Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheets), and Keynote (presentations). It's the first version of the software to run on one of Apple's portable devices and makes full use of the iPad's touch screen. Each app is offered separately at $9.99 per app.

Working on the iPad, is a mixed blessing, the apps themselves are as full-fledged as their desktop counterparts (read: Microsoft office). The apps are capable of editing Office documents too.

The iPad is not the most natural tool for work output, even with the full virtual QWERTY keyboard - the largest one we’ve worked with. While it is intuitive, and does have huge keys, we still find a physical keyboard much easier and faster to work with.

Typing will require the iPad to be placed on a surface, or propping it up with one arm and type with a free hand. Apple does have hardware solutions - Apple's keyboard dock or Bluetooth keyboard accessory. Syncing documents to and from the iPad will require iTunes, and sharing documents around will be a pain.

To answer whether or not it will serve as a primary work computer – yes, if you are determined and patient enough to get use to the syncing and typing.

Multimedia

The iPad has iPod functionality, access to Youtube and a built-in Videos app to start off the multimedia functions.

HD quality videos are especially enjoyable with the iPad’s screen. Apple still limits the iPad with mpeg-4 formats, so convert those videos before syncing them in. Audio quality is no different from the iPhone or iPod, offering good audio quality. Throwing in quality headphones will improve your experience as well.

Photo albums are supported by multi-touch, every photo folder can be expanded using the pinch movement. The expanded thumbnails can be preview and tapping those thumbnails will blow the photos up to full screen. The photos can be flipped through.

With Apple’s strategy to turn its mobile devices into gaming platform, the iPad receives the same treatment. The app store has thousands of games scaled to fit the iPad. We tested out Iron Man 2 and Dungeon Hunter, and we enjoyed good graphics and response time from the iPad. There will be a sense of frustration when working the touch controls. But expect to spend an entire afternoon grinding away at the numerous titles available in the App store.

Verdict

When we were done with the iPad, we can’t answer what exactly is the iPad. But it will suit a multitude of needs, be it music, work or videogames. To justify buying one? Just take your pick. The one thing we can answer, it will be one of the most coveted and talked about gadgets of this year.

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The 10th Nokia Connection event held in Singapore today, Nokia showcased for the Nokia’s latest smartphone, the Nokia N8, right before CommunicAsia 2010.

The device is powered by Symbian ^3, the Nokia N8 supports gestures such as flick scrolling and pinch-zoom and offers multiple, personalised home screens which can be loaded with apps from Ovi Store.

From the renders, the device looks like a giant capacitive 3.5 inch screen with 16M colours attached with a home button. With a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash, the Nokia N8 offers the ability to record HD-quality videos and editing.

The device supports quad-band GSM connectivity, with Wi-Fi, EDGE, EDGE and HSDPA. There’s a 5 megapixel on-board camera with a 4x digital zoom, with a LED flash. With a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash, there’s also the option to record HD-quality videos and edit them with an intuitive built-in editing suite.

The Nokia N8 is expected to be available in select markets during the 3rd of 2010 with an estimated retail price of EUR 370 before taxes and subsidies.

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Samsung Galaxy Beam I8520

Samsung's latest Android lineup includes the Galaxy Beam (I8520), Galaxy 3 (I5800), and Galaxy 5 (I5500).

Introduced earlier this year at CES 2010, the Galaxy Beam (I8520), an android powered mobile projector phone, is now launching in Singapore. The Galaxy Beam is the world's first smartphone equipped with a beam projector along with powerful multimedia features such as an 8 megapixel camera, HD video recording & playing, and a 3.7 inch Super AMOLED WVGA display.

The Galaxy 3 (I5800) is the latest android-powered smartphone offered by Samsung, delivering a rich multimedia and social media experience.

The Galaxy 5 (I5500) is especially targeted at the youth market, which wants to stay effortlessly connected on-the-move. Mimicking the well-known Corby design, the Samsung Galaxy 5 is the perfect fit for the style-conscious user.

The Galaxy 3 and Galaxy 5 will be available in the European and Asian markets in July and the Galaxy Beam will also launch in July in Singapore.

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